Question of the Week 10/31

In “Web 2.0 for Designers,” Richard McManus and Joshua Porter say:

In Web 1.0, a small number of writers created Web pages for a large number of readers. As a result, people could get information by going directly to the source: Adobe.com for graphic design issues, Microsoft.com for Windows issues, and CNN.com for news. Over time, however, more and more people started writing content in addition to reading it. This had an interesting effect—suddenly there was too much information to keep up with! We did not have enough time for everyone who wanted our attention and visiting all sites with relevant content simply wasn’t possible. As personal publishing caught on and went mainstream, it became apparent that the Web 1.0 paradigm had to change.

I have experienced the effect being described in this quote. It is difficult to keep up with all the variety and quantity of information available on the Web, the thing to do is not try to keep up with every little new thing. You have to understand that there is so much out there that it is nearly impossible to see everything. You need to figure out what is important for you to know and keep up with that. I find a source of information that I like, and keep up with their changes and deal with other information that is similar to what I already know.

The Web should change to allow people to manage and control information by being well organized and allowing people to find what they are looking for easily. Web writing will change to accomodate the many different audiences and Web design will need to change to allow the different audiences to access it easily. Perhaps a change in seach engines would be helpful in helping target information to specific needs.